sjowther from Honey WILLIAM WORDSWORTH; BIOGRAPHY. BY EDWIN PAXTON HOOD. LONDON: W. & F. G. CASH, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT. EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES. DUBLIN: HODGES & SMITH. 1856. 2:20 32 25714 TO WILLIAM BEST. I BEG of you to accept this volume as an offering of affection and friendship, because to you I believe of all my friends the writings of the Poet have been the most constant companions, and his words the most abiding influences. But I would further wish to set up this volume as a pillar in memory of that old season when we first sat together with Wordsworth, in the parlour at Rydal, on that quiet August evening-one of those glorious evenings we knew together by Grasmere and on Helvellyn; and of that other evening among these hills when listened to these pages, with her, you now gone from me, who united her wisdom and affectionate criticism to yours. A biography in the usual sense of the word this book does not profess to be, it is an attempt at a coherent view of the life of the Poet, from his own. records of thoughts and emotions, bound together by |